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The Blue Jays needed to do something special on Friday to excite their fans as they opened a nine-game homestand.

Instead, facing the Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre following a dismal three-city road trip, Jays bats remained silent, this time against left-hander Drew Smyly in an 8-0 defeat.

After breezing through the first inning, Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman elevated his first pitch to Evan Longoria to open the second. The all-star third baseman drove it high and deep into the left field seats behind the Jays’ bullpen. By the time Stroman was replaced with nobody out in the sixth, he had allowed six runs on 10 hits. He is 0-3 in his last four starts, with an 8.66 ERA in 17.2 innings.

“He was pitching behind a lot (in the count),” Jays catcher Dioner Navarro said. “He made a couple of mistakes with balls right over the plate and he paid for it. The ball was coming out good; I guess he wasn’t hitting his spots. It’s hard to pitch behind all the time. We play in the best baseball (league) in the world . . . we face some really good hitters. I guess he’s just going through one of those stretches. He’s a hard-working kid and I’m pretty sure he’s going to be fine. He’ll figure it out.”

It wasn’t all Stroman and his errant pitches to blame. There were also a number of half-hearted defensive plays. In the third inning, Tampa’s Kevin Kiermaier bounced a single up the middle and sped to second when Colby Rasmus was slow to the ball. That was followed by a Desmond Jennings bunt single. In the fifth inning on a double play grounder, Danny Valencia double-clutched in his glove and Steve Tolleson bounced the relay that got away at first base with a run scoring.

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“Overall we played a lousy game,” Gibbons said. “Smyly really took it to us pretty good, kept us off-balance all night. When you fall behind like that it can suck the wind out of you. It shouldn’t but it does. I thought we’d go out there and play with a little edge. We didn’t have it. We made some mistakes, couldn’t turn the big double play, laid back on a couple of balls, things like that. When you get an out you’ve got to take it.”

For the rest of the season, all of these AL East games will mean a lot more than just a win or a loss. The Jays entered Friday night with nine contests remaining against the Rays, and six each against the Orioles, Red Sox and Yankees.

Rays manager Joe Maddon says being familiar with your opponent can be a good thing.

“I know one thing — when we play Houston I don’t feel nearly as good about it,” Maddon said. “Knowing these guys does help us a little bit, prep wise, in-game wise, knowing the other managers. All that stuff does add a little bit of familiarity. I don’t know if it’s going to benefit you, but it does make you feel somewhat better. It’s just up to us to play.”

This was Stroman’s first start since last Friday’s debacle in which he recorded just two outs against the White Sox, allowing five runs. Talk after that disaster was that Jays coaches were concerned the rookie might be tipping his pitches.

“There were a couple of guys that were on some tough breaking balls pretty good,” Gibbons recalled. “Naturally if you have a tough inning like that, you always look at things. They really didn’t come up with anything. It’s . . . like some checkpoints, just to make sure, just in case (he’s tipping pitches).”

But it’s not just the rookie starter who needs to step up his game. Since July 30, the Jays’ five starting pitchers are a combined 2-11 in 19 games, while the bullpen is 4-2.

“(Tampa) outplayed us today — they out-pitched us, they out-hustled us,” Navarro said. “We’ve just got to come back tomorrow and play our game and try to do our best.”

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